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BlackBerry Ltd. is a Canadian telecommunications and wireless equipment company that developed the BlackBerry brand of smartphones and tablets. The first BlackBerry device that it released is an email pager back in 1999. And after that, it has managed to be a well-known brand of handheld devices. Most smartphone models, as we know them, feature a physical QWERTY keyboard. It was just not so long ago that the company has manufactured touchscreen devices.

Back in January 2010, BlackBerry dominated the mobile market share with 43% of the total number of smartphones used by individuals being the said brand. But now, the company merely accounts for 3.8% of the market share. There came out some news in the end of the 3rd quarter of 2013 that the company would be shedding almost 40% of its staff because of a $1 billion loss last quarter. These are already convincing enough evidences that suggest the downfall of the company.

Perhaps a number of us are curious onto what happened to BlackBerry. From being the company that dominated the smartphone market, it now is taking measures for it to be acquired. For sure, in the middle of its success, something went wrong. This is what one analyst thinks:

If only it were willing to embrace new hardware formats. Whenever you come to think of a BlackBerry device, you get to picture one with a QWERTY physical keyboard. The company had held on to that design for quite a long time, noting that the multi-key physical keyboard will bring the brand to glory. For quite some time, it became the preferred device of mobile consumers, especially those in the business sphere. But preferences change, and it took so long for Blackberry to acknowledge that touchscreen is the new “in.” This is why the brand itself has lost its appeal to the new generation of consumers.

If only it had employed consistent innovation in its operating system. The operating system is the soul of every smartphone. It manages the hardware resources of one’s device, and it provides common services for computer programs. Personally, I found the first versions of the BlackBerry OS non-user-friendly. Given this, the succeeding releases of its OS only provided some incremental improvements on its predecessor. A revolutionary change must have been observed on the OS for it to stay ahead of the competition.

If only it recognized much earlier that the desires of consumers are changing. One of BlackBerry’s fortes is its robust security features. This in turn had worked well for wooing the corporate world; however, the company failed to observe a paradigm shift from focusing on software security to bringing in some other user-friendly, innovative, and fun features. In the long run, it wasn’t able to gain the favor of the average consumer.

If only it had been more outwardly open and flexible. Besides the mobile accessories that can enhance the performance of smartphones, apps also have the capacity to boost a device’s function as well. Because of the strict rules and regulations observed by BlackBerry around app development, it resulted in having its app store lag behind Apple’s and Android’s in terms of quantity.





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    Nick

    is a man full of risks. He enjoys a challenge every now and then which is why even if it isn’t his chosen profession, he takes it all in. At present, he works for one of the top online mobile stores, Ecell Global.